Commercial-free Christmas

My television situation has been remedied. After all those movies on the laptop I now have the big screen to grace my living room. While it has been fantastic to watch movies for real again, the characters now as big as I am, I can’t help reflect on how great it has been for our daughters to be raised in a television-free home for so long. Since Vanessa and Tara have always been able to watch movies on their travel DVD player, I never realized how commercial-free their childhood has been. When they recently had a school assignment that required them to watch commercials and create their own, it was the first time their teacher was surprised that they did not outdo themselves with the project.

As I remember countless commercials from my childhood, it seems strange to me that my daughters will not. With Christmas a couple days away I can’t help be grateful that my daughters have had eight years of asking for what they’ve truly wanted, not those things a screen told them they ought to have. While commercials can be clever and funny there is such a freedom in not being told what we ought to have. It’s fulfilling to realize I have never seen an advertisement for anything on my list this year. Those are the things, born out of a desire of who we are as individuals, that are the best gifts. Whether it’s a telescope, air plants, marbled paper or an old steamer trunk, I hope you get something on your list this year that is truly for you, not for who anyone thinks you ought to be.

Wishing you a beautiful Christmas! Enjoy your celebrations!